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Unknown Lamer
on Wednesday January 08, 2014 @09:32AM
from the metaverse-not-included dept.

crabel writes "The Oculus rift prototype Crystal Cove shown at CES uses a camera to track over two dozen infrared dots placed all over the headset. With the new tracking system, you can lean and crouch because the system knows where your head is in 3D space, which can also help reduce motion sickness by accurately reflecting motions that previously weren't detected. On top of that, the new 'low persistence' display practically removes motion blur."
The new low-persistence AMOLEDs also achieve 1920x1080 across the field of vision. Reports are that immersion was greatly enhanced with head tracking.

They aren't going for perfect, but there are several things that it absolutely needs before it is ready. Head tracking tops that list easily. I have one of the earlier prototypes, and the lack is painfully obvious. Plus, core features like that have to be integrated into games, if you are missing it then you will have a compatability break between 1 and 2, which would be very harmful at this stage of affairs. The new display is less nesseccary, but it is something worth improving while they are working on getting other things running.

The resolution could use some improvement (and has for the real release) but the tracking is AMAZING. It really feels like you are immersed completely in a 3D world. It works best in environments where your movement is decoupled completely from vision (driving and flying simulators). I've never experienced motion sickness in my entire life but 20 minutes in Half Life got me feeling quite queezy.

The model demoed is said to have 30ms latency, total, from user input to screen. They've mentioned their end goal is sub-20ms. Current thinking is that 7-15ms is the ideal where we aren't able to perceive any lag.

And I believe this is why the consumer version has been delayed. They've identified possible sources for the VR nausea (lag, lack of head *position* tracking) and are working to resolve them.

I'm OK with the delays while they iron out these issues as I'd prefer a VR headset that has a lasting market presence to one that is introduced and in bargain bins in 3 months due to wide spread reports of users getting sick with minimal use.
That said... I'm am seriously giddy about this thing.